Filmmaker and artist, Kip Fulbeck, traveled throughout the United States to photograph its diverse populace and asked each subject to hand-write a response to the question “What are you?” At CAF, he will present a multimedia performance that weaves together these collected stories and images with spoken word, film, photography, and pop culture to explore multiracial identity, tattoo culture, and contemporary America. There will be a book signing following the performance.

Santa Barbara-based, Kip Fulbeck received a B.A. and an M.F.A., University of California San Diego, San Diego, CA and is an Professor in Art and an affiliate faculty in Asian American Studies and Film & Media Studies at the University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA. He has published numerous books including Part Asian, 100% Hapa; Permanence: Tattoo Portraits; and Mixed: Portraits of Multiracial Kids as well as directed a dozen short films. He has been featured on CNN, MTV, and PBS and has performed at hundreds of venues throughout the world.

About the Forum Lounge Series: Forum Lounge is a series of free, unique, performance-based events, ranging from the theatrical to the avant-garde that are normally found only in large metropolitan venues, and that reflect CAF’s mission to sustain and encourage the artistic process by presenting art in the form of exceptional music, dance, video, and other multi-media to our community.

About the Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum (CAF): CAF is a non-profit, non-collecting alternative art space dedicated to the exhibition, education, and cultivation of the arts of our time. Celebrating its 35th anniversary in 2011, CAF is the premier venue for contemporary art between Los Angeles and San Francisco. CAF is located at the Paseo Nuevo Mall Upper Arts Terrace in downtown Santa Barbara, CA.

Curator's Notes:

Visionary filmmaker, spoken word artist and multimedia performer Kip Fulbeck spins his unique storytelling technique for this month's Forum Lounge event. A faculty member at UCSB in the departments of art, Asian American studies and Film & Media, Fulbeck truly encompasses the Forum Lounge mission to investigate and push the perceived boundaries of artmaking within categorized genres by combining photography, video, and spoken word into a fast-paced multimedia presentation. In his scholarship and artistic investigations, he consistently thrills in exposing the cultural and social stereotypes on which we build our assumptions of race, gender and sexuality. By asking his subjects "what are you?", Fulbeck not only underlines the commonalities between us all but also evokes the larger existential question "who are we?". But what makes Kip's work so appealing is that he uses popular culture--a familiar and palatable device--to appeal to our innate open-mindedness. Like the Forum Lounge program, he demands from his audience the willingness to explore and investigate our traditional belief systems and but also provides them with an entertaining and touching vehicle through which they may achieve this.

1 Comment

Comment by Wishful on Tue 31st May, 2011

this sounds very good. we will be there!

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About

Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara (MCASB), formerly the Contemporary Arts Forum (CAF), is a non-profit, non-collecting institution dedicated to exhibiting the highest quality of contemporary art while recognizing "the artists of tomorrow," and was founded in 1976 by artists and art supporters seeking a venue dedicated solely to contemporary art. What once began as a grassroots, artist-run organization with nominal funding now serves as the leading contemporary arts presenter in Central California. MCASB offers its innovative education and exhibition programming to the region primarily free of charge. There is no admission fee because MCASB believes that the arts should be accessible to all audiences of all persuasions.
MCASB advances creativity and inspires critical thinking through meaningful engagement with the art of our time.